Iowa Egg Farmers

Did you know that Iowa is number one in egg production in the United States?

That’s right, Iowa’s diverse agriculture is tops in corn, soybeans, hogs – and eggs! So, your favorite entree or ingredient for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, likely comes from your own backyard. In fact, in Iowa from September 2016 through August 2017, our hens laid nearly 16 billion eggs! That means Iowa farmers are responsible for about 1 in 5 eggs consumed in the United States each year. Plus, they help drive the Iowa economy through jobs and economic impact contributing more than $2-billion in total sales and more than 8,000 jobs.

Quick Egg Facts:

Currently, the top five egg producing U.S. States (ranked by number of egg layers represented in thousands) are:

State Number of Hens

Iowa 53,408

Indiana 31,967

Ohio 29,667

Pennsylvania 25,670

Texas 17,330

The five largest egg producing states represent about 52-percent of all U.S. layers.

National per capita consumption is a measure of total egg production divided by the total population.
(It does not represent demand.)

Year

Egg Consumption

2010

249.3

2011

250.0

2012

254.2

2013

258.6

2014

266.6

2015

252.9

2016

267.4

2017

274.6

2018

279.0

2019

282.0*
* – Projected

Of the 254.52 million cases (estimated) of shell eggs produced in 2017:

76.90 million cases (30.2 percent) were further processed into liquid or dried egg

Exports of processed egg products in 2017 was 100,520 tons (valued at $119.16 million), up 56 percent with respect to 2016. In 2017, the U.S. exported 1293 million shell eggs (valued at $114.62 million), down 5 percent with respect to 2016.

Of the total table egg shipments, 71 percent or 187.5 million dozen were shipped to the top five export markets – Canada (20%), Japan (20%), China (14%), Mexico (11%) and South Korea (6%).